Skyward Sword 1
Despite giving Skyward Sword 10/10, the game doesn't even make it into Edge's top 100 of all time

Edge Magazine - Edge Staff, 2017

We'd love to have included more magazines in this list, but it's hard to find any info on them - and even when you do, it's not always what you're looking for. Edge has no official Zelda ranking, but they do have a 2017 "100 Greatest Games" list - so we've pulled the Zeldas out of that to create a top 5.

  1. Breath of the Wild
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. Wind Waker
  4. Link to the Past
  5. Majora's Mask

If you know Edge, you may know that the coveted Edge 10/10 is a rare, and hard to get rating. Only 22 games in the history of games have ever received it, and three of them were Zelda games: Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword, and Breath of the Wild. Only the Super Mario series has more 10/10s than Zelda, and even then, it's only 4 total. So, it's surprising to see that Skyward Sword didn't make it to the top 100 games of all time. Well, not that surprising.

Edge gets a 6/10, but only because an Edge 6/10 is equivalent to an 8/10 from anywhere else.

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Another high-ranking Twilight Princess list from the Escapist

The Escapist - Liz Finnegan, 2016*

Another pre-BOTW one, sadly. Liz Finnegan begs the readers, "please, no pitchforks" - a sentiment we often find ourselves echoing. Shouldn't you be saving those for hay, anyway?

  1. Link to the Past
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. Majora's Mask
  4. Twilight Princess
  5. Wind Waker
  6. A Link Between Worlds
  7. Minish Cap
  8. Link's Awakening
  9. The Legend of Zelda
  10. Skyward Sword

Alright, our pitchforks are back in their cages. Hard to find too many faults with this one - an appreciation for the N64 era mixed with a healthy dose of respect for the original LoZ. We imagine that Skyward Sword would get bumped off if this list was up-to-date with Breath of the Wild.

7/10. Do these ratings even mean anything any more? We don't know. We can't even remember our own names at this point.

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More appreciation for Grezzo's fine work on the Link's Awakening remake

digitaltrends - Steven Petite & Jon Bitner, 2021

Digitaltrends bucks the trend of starting with the lowest-ranked Zelda and moving all the way up to first place, making it a bit of an anticlimax. Still, we can't complain too much, since that's what we've been doing for this whole article.

  1. Breath of the Wild
  2. Link's Awakening
  3. Link to the Past
  4. Wind Waker
  5. Ocarina of Time
  6. The Legend of Zelda
  7. Majora's Mask
  8. Minish Cap
  9. Oracle of Ages/Seasons
  10. A Link Between Worlds

Digitaltrends calls Majora's Mask the "grittiest" Zelda, and opines that Ocarina of Time has aged "far more gracefully than most polygonal games". They don't get to rank higher than fifth place, though, thanks to the excellent remake of Link's Awakening and the risk-taking Breath of the Wild and Wind Waker. Fair enough, we say.

It's another 8/10 for this one, because while it's surprising to see Link's Awakening grabbing the second place spot, it's not completely controversial. It is quite pretty.

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Majora's Mask gets pummelled into last place

Giant Bomb - Giant Bomb Team, 2016*

Another pre-Breath of the Wild, but this time with an extra added twist: Jeff Gerstmann really hates Majora's Mask, so it gets pushed all the way down to tenth place (and he would have moved it even lower were it not for Dan Ryckert's protestations). However, the team is universally united in their love for the handheld Zeldas (handheldas), which is worth something.

  1. Link to the Past
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. Wind Waker
  4. The Legend of Zelda
  5. A Link Between Worlds
  6. Minish Cap
  7. Twilight Princess
  8. Phantom Hourglass
  9. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
  10. Majora's Mask

It's easy to find fault here, largely because of the travesty of Majora's Mask in last place, but this is, after all, the opinions of four very tired men (Drew Scanlon abstains, having never played a Zelda game), at the end of a 2.5 hour podcast, the day after PAX. Perhaps the Bombcast boys would be interested in a re-do of their list in better spirits?

We'll also abstain from giving this one a score, because we don't want Jeff to be mean to us.

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Spirit Tracks: what if Zelda, but trains?

Den of Geek - Jason M. Gallagher, Joe Jasko, 2017*

This one is pre-Breath of the Wild, but only just - it was made to drum up hype for the upcoming release, in February 2017. Surprisingly, they rank both Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures under Tri Force Heroes and Zelda II - which we're just going to assume is because they didn't have any link cables. Or friends, maybe. We can relate, having never had quite enough friends with the right consoles to play with, either. Sob.

  1. Link to the Past
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. A Link Between Worlds
  4. Majora's Mask
  5. Wind Waker
  6. The Legend of Zelda
  7. Twilight Princess
  8. Skyward Sword
  9. Link's Awakening
  10. Spirit Tracks

It's pretty surprising to see Link's Awakening crack the top ten before its shiny new re-release, but some people just really love the classics. This list, like many others, is dominated by the early Zeldas, and the later ones that were inspired by them, too.

It's a 7/10, though, because Spirit Tracks is not better than Phantom Hourglass. Although Gav may disagree.

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Phantom Hourglass: what if Zelda, but boats, but also drawing?

Digital Spy - Digital Spy Team, 2017*

Another only-just-before Breath of the Wild list, this time from Digital Spy.

  1. Wind Waker
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. Link to the Past
  4. Link's Awakening
  5. A Link Between Worlds
  6. Majora's Mask
  7. The Legend of Zelda
  8. Minish Cap
  9. Phantom Hourglass
  10. Twilight Princess

Wow! The only list to rank Wind Waker in first place - except Famitsu, who technically didn't rank it - Digital Spy has a clear favourite, and they might be alone in thinking that. Don't get us wrong, Wind Waker is fab - but it's quite a unique opinion to say that it's better than... well, most of the games on this list. Then again, a difference in opinions - as we've said before - makes us more interesting people.

Still, it's a 7/10 for this list. Good, but not great.

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If Skyward Sword wins this competition, please don't come for us. It's the maths!!

Official Nintendo Magazine - ONM Team, 2012*

We really couldn't miss out our dear ONM, could we? This one is easily the oldest on the list - it's even pre-Wind Waker and pre-Link Between Worlds! Majora's Mask 3D was still a twinkle in Eiji Aonuma's eye! Also... technically, this list isn't an official Zelda ranking. We scraped it from a Top 100. Because this list is so old, we're not going to include it in the official ranking averages - but it's still nice to see what Official Nintendo Mag thought ALMOST TEN YEARS AGO. Good gravy, time flies.

  1. Skyward Sword
  2. Ocarina of Time
  3. Wind Waker
  4. Link to the Past
  5. Twilight Princess
  6. Majora's Mask
  7. Link's Awakening
  8. Phantom Hourglass
  9. Minish Cap
  10. Spirit Tracks

It's a shame that ONM is not only dead but practically razed to the ground, because we'd love to know the reasoning behind Skyward Sword in pole position. Even then, there's no way it was better than Ocarina. Surely. This list was made in the year after Skyward Sword's release, though, so we'll just put it down to excitement for now.

Out of respect for the dead, we will not be giving this one a grade. Rest in peace, sweet mag.